M.S.A. (Mary Sues/Marty Stus Anonymous)

[Toruika]

For those poor saps who have either written or conceived of MS plots dealing with Trek in some way/shape/form.

Feel free to share your MSue ideas or link in your favorite MSue Trek stories. Please keep this thread light-hearted and flame resistant. Jokes and criticism should be geared towards the fiction itself, rather than the writers. I would hope that most MSue authors realize their fiction is self-gratifying so should also take critiques with a grain of salt. These aren't the Great American Novels, afterall.

But they can be fun.

So, with that note... My SN is Toruika. I have an MSue fantasy that I'm loathe to write, but might do so, anyway. FSM help us.

 

[Da'an]

The First and Original Mary Sue:

A Trekkie's Tale by Paula Smith.

 

[Toruika]

Wow. Kinda hard to top that one. Was it written seriously? Or as a joke?

 

[Da'an]

It was meant as a joke, parodying bad fanfiction.

 

[sojourner]

It's where the original term comes from. You would have to ask the author what the original intent was.


I always wanted to do a Mary Sue-ish story turned on it's ear. Have a trek fan - through some cosmic accident - get transported aboard Voyager. The character would then just basicly rip into the crew for all the stupid things they have done over the seasons and point out the several different times they could have gotten home with just a little more thinking.

I am sure it has been written by someone out there.

 

[Toruika]

It's where the original term comes from. You would have to ask the author what the original intent was.


I always wanted to do a Mary Sue-ish story turned on it's ear. Have a trek fan - through some cosmic accident - get transported aboard Voyager. The character would then just basicly rip into the crew for all the stupid things they have done over the seasons and point out the several different times they could have gotten home with just a little more thinking.

I am sure it has been written by someone out there.

LMAO Yeah, I can see that, very easily. It reminds me of what one of my friends said, regarding the premise of Voyager: Wesley Crusher shows up on the bridge, as he "travels" and chastises the crew, saying, "God, you guys SUCK. Picard would have had this ship back within an hour!" (Exit Wesley, stage left.) Same friend coined that series as "Janeway's Castaways."

I tried watching Voyager, but save for a few episodes, I just really didn't get into it, myself.

 

[Goliath]

The First and Original Mary Sue:

A Trekkie's Tale by Paula Smith.

I can honestly say I've never read anything close to being that bad.

 

[clint g]

The First and Original Mary Sue:

A Trekkie's Tale by Paula Smith.

I can honestly say I've never read anything close to being that bad.

Yeah, she must have written it as a joke. I refuse to believe someone can seriously write something so terrible

 

[CeJay]

Time to out myself. I've written a character which has been accused of being a Mary Sue.

And after researching that a bit I can see why.

Her people are described as being ethereally beautiful and live on a world that knows neither war nor violence. They also mature faster intellectually which means she is just about 21 but as smart as a woman twice her age and her people possess a scientifically unexplainable 'aura' which affects most people around them albeit it does not make them wanna have sex with her like for example Deltans and Orions.

She has a short appearance in the short story The Sins Of The Father but is heavily featured in my novels where she has been known to make a roguish trader give up secret information by utilizing her 'skills' and settle down an angry starship captain by offering nothing more than a smile before meeting her CO.

That doesn't sound good, come to think of it but I maintain she isn't a complete Mary Sue. I have to. What else can I do? I've come to like the character too much to write her out ...

 

[The Badger]

As Da'an points out, it was a joke. A parody of the worst excesses of fan fiction of the time.

As to the OP, my fan fic (which is meant to represent what Enterprise would have been like if I had been in charge) features a definite Mary Sue in the form of Professor Polly Partridge.

A brilliant physicist and mathematician, Polly holds six doctorates in various scientific disciplines. Like all good Mary Sues, she is often representative of the authors own philosophies (liberal, pacifist, atheist etc.)

Description, from her first appearance.
"Some one in the media had once said that if you were trying to prove false the idea that scientists were all boring old men, then Professor Polly Partridge was that proof given form. Hernandez thought that she had the sort of figure men like, all legs and curves and unnecessarily large bumps. With her blonde hair, blue eyes and wide smile, she didn't at all fit the stereotype of what her fellow Brits refer to as a 'boffin'.

Instead of the lab coat that Hernandez imagined all scientists to wear constantly (she knew that was a silly idea, but the image persisted) Partridge was attired in a...garment. Hernandez couldn't think of any other term. It was in one piece, covering everything below the neck, but was so snug it left precious little to the imagination. It was black, supple, synthetic, and it glistened wetly as the light caught it. Hernandez found herself glancing out of the window to see if it was raining."

More (if you can stand it) at:
http://trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=90084

 

[The Badger]

That doesn't sound good, come to think of it but I maintain she isn't a complete Mary Sue. I have to. What else can I do? I've come to like the character too much to write her out ...

That's the trouble with Mary Sue's. The author's always grow fond of them.


I must point out that a Mary Sue is not automatically a bad thing. It easily can be of course but there are exceptions. The character Mara Jade in the Star Wars novels is a perfect example of a Mary Sue that succeeded.

 

[CeJay]

"Some one in the media had once said that if you were trying to prove false the idea that scientists were all boring old men, then Professor Polly Partridge was that proof given form. Hernandez thought that she had the sort of figure men like, all legs and curves and unnecessarily large bumps. With her blonde hair, blue eyes and wide smile, she didn't at all fit the stereotype of what her fellow Brits refer to as a 'boffin'.

Instead of the lab coat that Hernandez imagined all scientists to wear constantly (she knew that was a silly idea, but the image persisted) Partridge was attired in a...garment. Hernandez couldn't think of any other term. It was in one piece, covering everything below the neck, but was so snug it left precious little to the imagination. It was black, supple, synthetic, and it glistened wetly as the light caught it. Hernandez found herself glancing out of the window to see if it was raining."

More (if you can stand it) at:
http://trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=90084

That's pretty good. Makes me wanna read this.

 

[Toruika]

Time to out myself. I've written a character which has been accused of being a Mary Sue.

And after researching that a bit I can see why.

[snipped]

That doesn't sound good, come to think of it but I maintain she isn't a complete Mary Sue. I have to. What else can I do? I've come to like the character too much to write her out ...

I've RPed a few characters that could come across as Mary Sue... I'm sure there's no shortage of us that have done such. And as we invest more in said characters, it becomes difficult to edit them down to their basics or set them aside completely. I remember a discussion in creative writing class, regarding authors' favorites. "Darlings" we called them. And sometimes, for the sake of good writing, we have to let them go. The same idea was applied to scenes that, on their own, were good, but otherwise did not move the story along or fit in.

As Da'an points out, it was a joke. A parody of the worst excesses of fan fiction of the time.

As to the OP, my fan fic (which is meant to represent what Enterprise would have been like if I had been in charge) features a definite Mary Sue in the form of Professor Polly Partridge.

A brilliant physicist and mathematician, Polly holds six doctorates in various scientific disciplines. Like all good Mary Sues, she is often representative of the authors own philosophies (liberal, pacifist, atheist etc.)
More (if you can stand it) at:
http://trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=90084

Yeah, that's pretty braintastic. But also possible, given various alien cultures and abilities. And I see what you mean with Mary Sues, in general. They do become characiatures of the author or the author's viewpoints, regarding the fictional universe.

That's the trouble with Mary Sue's. The author's always grow fond of them.


I must point out that a Mary Sue is not automatically a bad thing. It easily can be of course but there are exceptions. The character Mara Jade in the Star Wars novels is a perfect example of a Mary Sue that succeeded.

Yes, and MJ was probably edited down a good many times before the final product came to the editors desk. She had flaws, too. It's been a very long time since I read the Thrawn books... So my memory of her is hazy, forgive.

 

[Kaziarl]

oh my... what if someones story was full of them? Thats a scary thought... An entire starship run by Mary Sue's...

 

[Toruika]

oh my... what if someones story was full of them? Thats a scary thought... An entire starship run by Mary Sue's...

It'd be the Mary Sue Continuum. (Mary Q?)

 

[hellsgate]

I don't find mary/marty-sue's annoying, as there's not really that many I've seen around lately.

But what I do find annoying is the volume of authors that insist on conceiving Starfleet Godships that never, ever take a significant hit to a nacelle, nacelle pylon, or a direct hit to the bridge, or even a lucky ricochet with a projectile weapon to a vulnerable system in the process of being sealed off during MVAM / emergency saucer seperation. (or, the enemy decides to do something despicable such as beam something in during a diplomatic exchange & the shields are down, or through a vulnerable point such as the Captain's Yacht dedicated berth while its away.)

Scientists never unleash difficult-to-diagnose, AIDS-like diseases on booby-trapped bodies purposely left in stasis.

Tactical Officers never miss their target by even just a hair.

The enemies always leave their weakest point vulnerable & the battery packs on tricorders n' phasers never run dry at the least useful opportunity because the lowest guy on the totem pole was out getting laid last night rather than hooking-up the battery packs.

 

[Toruika]

In other words, you want the crew to experience a really bad Monday, where everything goes to sh!t in small, but successive ways?

 

[Kaziarl]

I don't find mary/marty-sue's annoying, as there's not really that many I've seen around lately.

But what I do find annoying is the volume of authors that insist on conceiving Starfleet Godships that never, ever take a significant hit to a nacelle, nacelle pylon, or a direct hit to the bridge, or even a lucky ricochet with a projectile weapon to a vulnerable system in the process of being sealed off during MVAM / emergency saucer seperation. (or, the enemy decides to do something despicable such as beam something in during a diplomatic exchange & the shields are down, or through a vulnerable point such as the Captain's Yacht dedicated berth while its away.)

Scientists never unleash difficult-to-diagnose, AIDS-like diseases on booby-trapped bodies purposely left in stasis.

Tactical Officers never miss their target by even just a hair.

The enemies always leave their weakest point vulnerable & the battery packs on tricorders n' phasers never run dry at the least useful opportunity because the lowest guy on the totem pole was out getting laid last night rather than hooking-up the battery packs.

But the show was pretty good at doing that too. Granted, they were a little better at going about it, but I don't really remember the Enterprise D missing it's target. The most they got was worf going "No damage"

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Time to out myself. I've written a character which has been accused of being a Mary Sue.

And after researching that a bit I can see why.

Her people are described as being ethereally beautiful and live on a world that knows neither war nor violence. They also mature faster intellectually which means she is just about 21 but as smart as a woman twice her age and her people possess a scientifically unexplainable 'aura' which affects most people around them albeit it does not make them wanna have sex with her like for example Deltans and Orions.

She has a short appearance in the short story The Sins Of The Father but is heavily featured in my novels where she has been known to make a roguish trader give up secret information by utilizing her 'skills' and settle down an angry starship captain by offering nothing more than a smile before meeting her CO.

That doesn't sound good, come to think of it but I maintain she isn't a complete Mary Sue. I have to. What else can I do? I've come to like the character too much to write her out ...

Has she ever felt ANY conflict about the morality (or possible inherent lack thereof) of using these characteristics? Has she ever been confronted with it in a way that would make a serious impact on her? One would think, for instance, that in the wake of the Borg incursions, that the abrogation of the will in ANY form would be viewed as a serious crime or at least morally very troubling. Hell, if you ask me, someone who has that much undue influence on others who cannot fight that influence, and there is no way to control it like the pheromone suppressants that Orions and Deltans take, there is an argument to be made that she should not even be serving in Starfleet where she might cloud the judgment of others around her.

What about her flaws? Have you given her any? Does she have conflicts with anybody? What about her people? Surely there is a dark side to how they became the way they are. Is there some way in which that might bite her--or them--in the ass?

This is just some food for thought...examples of some of the things I have not seen, that cause me to have problems with Deen and the Tenarian people as a whole.

 

[TheLoneRedshirt]

The First and Original Mary Sue:

A Trekkie's Tale by Paula Smith.

A few reviews:

"Good Lord! That's almost as bad as Vogon poetry. Made me want to pluck out my eyes and gnaw off my leg."
- The late Douglas Adams

"Gloriously hideous!"
- Leonard Pinth-Garnell

"We will rain nuclear fire on your heads for this outrage! . . . or something even worse!!!"
- Kim Jong-il, aka Dear Leader

"Scared the bejeebus out of me!"
- Stephen King

"Just wait until my reboot comes out."
-J.J. Abrams

"We tried to get Mary Sue to appear with us on the Factor. She refused. So, we sent one of our producers to set her house on fire."
-Bill O'Reilly

"Screw Abrams, wait until my movie comes out!"
-Quentin Tarantino

"Mmmmm. Doughnuts . . ."
- Homer Simpson